The Fire Dance
by Ruth Lechner
Summary: A girl grows up in the Fire Nation and it's pretty much taken from there. Read if you want something interesting to think about. Genres: Mystery/Romance. Pairings: None, for now. Writing: Detailed, long, in-depth. Chapters vary in length by scene. First Avatar fic. AU divergence in timeline/show plot. OOC. WIP
1. Chapter 1

Flames leapt from her hands towards the master fire bender, who deflected her attack, before sending an attack her way. Once the sparring was over, the teacher straightened with his hands behind his back.

"Good work, Kori."

The ten year old straightened as well.

"Thank you, Master."

"Tell me, what was going through your mind when you were bending just now?"

Kori's short black hair moved in the wind as she debated her answer, whether to tell the truth or make something up that was close to the truth to satisfy him.

"I was thinking about beating you with all my might," She answered. Some of the kids snickered at the sidelines where they waited to spar Master Gun. She glared at them and clenched her fists.

"You stopped breathing in the middle of your sparring. How is a firebender supposed to draw from his inner fire if he does not breathe to keep it circulating?" He asked rhetorically. Kori was ready to work on that right now with him and her eagerness showed that. "You need to work on that. Sit down in line. Next, arise."

She stormed over to her spot in line, which happened to be at the end, and sat down in frustration, crossing her arms hotly across her chest, glaring at a spot on the floor to her empty right, fire coming out of her mouth. The rest of the kids, who like her were dressed in red and black trimmed uniform, ignored her.

She didn't like the way their school taught things, it was very single-minded, closed-minded, and set only on molding the students into who they wanted them to be. There was no room for creativity or original ideas. It was all about what the Fire Lord wanted them to think.

Kori angrily entered her parent's courtyard from the street, ignoring everyone there and stalking across the tiles to the main deck of the house.

"Kori," called a man with a good height and handsome features.

She stopped, but did not turn around, her shoulders tense and her mind already set on her next training exercise.

"Never mind," the man smiled. "Go on with what you were doing."

Kori was relentless and single-minded when it came to pursuing something.

Sparing again with Master Gun, Kori moved around in a circle with her sensei that was much larger than her. They exchanged firey blows, and in one punch of fire to his student, Kori focused on extinguishing the fire as it came to her instead of dodging it. It extinguished into nothing before it hit her, and the Master firebender quirked an eyebrow. Then Kori felt a large flaming kick his way with ferocious speed and force, and for its power, Master Gun still did not have trouble deflecting it.

He stopped their sparing then.

"What were you doing, then?"

She knew what he was referring to, and pulled out of her fighting stance.

"I thought I could extinguish the flame before it got to me. I wanted to see if I could do it, and it would save physical energy dodging, because I had a good position over you."

"That is not traditional form. Do not do it again."

Kori was careful with her reply. She was used to this in all her classes, including sparing. Each of her teachers had given her warnings for 'diverting from the traditional thought form or strategy form'. If she kept sticking out, they would speak to her parents and it would be even more difficult to make friends than it already was. So Kori lowered her eyes and apologized, lowering herself into a fighting stance again like her master. Notably, everyone, the children in the sidelines included, relaxed, filing it away as an accident. Kori was no longer a threat anymore.

If Kori was not going to practice her unconventional bending style at school, then she would do that at home, on her own time. She would not give up her other way of bending – it had value; the upper hand if she needed to surprise her opponent or get different angles than her traditional bending could. If everyone was trained in one way, then a new, different form of bending that only she knew because it was Kori herself who developed it, then she would have strategic advantage over any bending opponent she ever faced. There's no way she would give that up just because her master told her not to do it. Kori developed it from the flaws and holes she saw in bending – the opponents weak points, vulnerable spots, any point left open. Anything that could be hit that would not be protected, Kori planned for. And, additionally, she would not be moving like a traditional firebender, which would make people underestimate her. And if people underestimated her, that would also be strategic advantage.

Because of Kori's new change in attitude at school – no longer challenging or arguing with the teachers, talking back, or trying to expose the flaws of their education system, and by now making herself as non-threatening and obedient as possible, following directions, orders, and being extremely patriotic towards her Nation, other children started to approach and befriend her. Kori was starting to be seen in a positive light in her classroom, as both orally charismatic and intellectually charming, and skilled and utterly devoted to the Fire Lord. She developed good relationships with her teachers, and become the model pupil for her whole school. She had no shortage of friends, which was both positive and negative.

On the inside, Kori could not stand the way the children thought – she thought them weak for not being independent in mind to stand up against their parents, and she also detested that the only topics they talked about were the Fire Lord and serving the Fire Nation, or how the Fire Nation was going to win the war and how they had the strongest element of them all. It was a bland topic in Kori's opinion, that she had heard all too many times throughout her life, and there was nothing new about it. It was always the same words used in the same order that bored Kori out of her mind. She knew how to navigate through these conversations and project much confidence and perceived ease. After all, it was a rehearsed act. But while everyone around her believed their own words of the Fire Nation's glory and their Lord's supreme might, Kori didn't. While she detested it, it had also always fascinated her in a way, how everyone around her could believe so full heartedly into an idea that they had only been told, not proved, and it completely flew over Kori's head how they could be so emotionally involved in the idea.

Nonetheless, Kori needed success to rise in the ranks of the Fire Nation. That was the plan in the back of her mind. It didn't matter how skilled she was, if she did not know conversation or charm she would get nowhere. They were expendable, unnecessary things in her opinion, but as soon as she tried them on her classmates and her teachers, the results more than made up for it. She had risen in popularity and perceived strength and invulnerability. It was the way she carried herself. She let out her intellectual strengths which she had previously seen no need of shoving it in other people's faces – there's nothing more annoying than someone shoving themselves in your faces – but people took to it well. Her charisma was charming, and was devoid of statements about her superiority. No, she carried herself in a way that showed strength and confidence. She did not doubt herself or what she knew – because she proved what she knew to be real before she believed it - and people could pick that up about her.

And so, Kori had many friends. She charmed them into laughter and good feeling. In her mind, they were acquaintances. Because any real friends that she made, she would never insult them with charming them. If anyone earned her respect, that is.

Master Gun had had her respect when she met him. She could tell immediately that he was powerful. He was a general stepped down, and a formidable firebender, not that he exploited that on the children. However, he bought into the fire nation's way of thought, which Kori couldn't accept. So she had mixed feelings about him. While she respected him enough to answer him truthfully when he asked a question, she also resented and was disappointed in how closed-minded he was of the nation's superiority to other elements.

It was ridiculousness, in Kori's opinion. There was no such thing as superiority. In one being, there was fire, in the warmth, earth, in the flesh, water, in the fluids, and air in the air they breathed. It was what made a person whole. If there was superiority, then there would be no matter, organism, or creation. If superiority did exist, then the superior organism in question would be the only thing to exist because of its superior qualities, but then, it would have nothing to be better than. Everything must then be equal, with characteristics that others do not possess. Each element has its value, water for its healing properties and submissive nature that yields to win. It forms to the surroundings it's in, but it's the force that erodes away cliffs and mighty cities. Earth has its solidity and fertility, without it, nothing can take root and grow. Earth grounds and stabilizes people. It is the house of nature – and in nature, insects keep all plant life and animal life going, and is also where humans live. Fire is the warmth of the day, the sunshine of the sun that allows all things to grow, and the fire that purifies. Without fire, there would be no destruction of the old and the re-growth for the new. And air is light and flowing, the ability to be creative and dream and rise above ones problems. Without water, nothing would evolve or continue. Without Earth, there would be nothing to ground us, nothing to eat, nothing to live on, no pleasures of the physical to enjoy. Without fire, no one would get what they want, and nothing can grow or evolve. Without air, we would become static. Each element contained it's own precious value that no other element possessed. It was like a game of 'rock-paper-scissors' with the elements. Each one needed the other. There is no such thing as superiority – one being better than another – because together they made a whole where each one won. There was only destruction, suffering and failure where there was imbalance. It was simple physics, if there is not balance within a molecule's protons, neutrons and electrons, it cannot support itself and destruction results.

There was nothing glorious or clever or intelligent or superior about what the Fire Lord was doing. He was destroying the world. There was already significant imbalance with the destruction of the Air Nomads, although Kori would have expected to see more imbalance. Perhaps, in the Fire Nation, she was sheltered to how things really were in the world. Perhaps it was worse than they could see.

But it was ridiculous and prompted doubt – the propaganda they received on the war. It was ridiculous how the Fire Nation could have such a long string of reported successes that is has. She was certain that things did not really turn out that way. Certainly, in her classroom her firebender teachers did not have a ridiculously long streak of successes with children, in her personal life she did not have a ridiculously long set of success in every single thing she set out to do. Things backfired in the teacher's faces a lot, (if there was no discipline). Things backfired in Kori's face too. She learned the subtle art of social interaction only through a long string of mistakes and failures – outcasting, glaring looks, back stabbing, and various insults and declarations of hate. It was a rocky road to get as smooth and calculated as she was, and it was all a hypocritical mess to her. Kori would rather state her intention straight forwardly than beat around the bush with meaningless talk of the weather and how each other are faring BEFORE then hinting at what she wants. But it is an art she has had to master to ultimately gain what she wants and smooth sailing with her peers and teachers. She did not like conflict. And if she could do or learn something to prevent unnecessary conflict, then she would do that. She was the only variable in the class that had stuck out like she had, and everyone could tell she was different. So, because it was obviously her problem, she set to solve it. And that meant pushing herself into social interaction and learning from her many mistakes.

As for her firebending, her breathing problem stopped when she started becoming well-liked at school.

"Why do you always hold your breath while sparing?" Her father asked her one day. She did not know him well, and he did not have her respect either, but she gave him a half-hearted response.

But later, she admitted to herself that she always felt too much. She always felt so many things, and deeply too. More so than others, it seemed like. Her thought process was, maybe if I stop breathing, I will stop feeling. Bending made all of her repressed feelings come out – her frustration, her determination, her passion, her anger, and her sadness. She pushed all her feelings away to become the best at whatever she was mastering. And she felt so much while she was bending, and she did not want to look like she was sensitive or deep-feeling like she really was, so she unconsciously held her breath and her firebending always suffered. But after figuring out a plan, a strategy to deal with the students and her teachers, she believed in herself more powerfully because she had something that had been troubling her figured out. And she breathed regularly.

Kori was calmly walking through the hallway of her house with her hands behind her back in a dignified way when her little brother, who was only five, ran up to her with his toy dragon in his hand.

"Hey!"

"Hi Tammy. Did you just get home?" She didn't halt her gentle march.

"Yeah – not that it's any of your BUSINESS!" He shouted at her. She narrowed her eyes gently.

"Why are you speaking to me like that?" She halted her progression down the hall.

Her younger brother shrugged, and ran down the corridor away from her. He had a mean streak. Kori felt irritation rise up in her and she took her hands from behind her back and continued walking with them by her sides.

Kori had been a sensitive and loving child. She cried easily if anyone ever teased her, and always held herself to a high degree of responsibility. She was terrified when her younger brother was born, because she did not know yet how to become a great sister, and that would mean she would make mistakes and fail at it. When Kori got older, she learned to toughen up, especially around the strict, stern, and discipline-oriented Fire Nation.

When Kori turned thirteen, everyone suddenly became interested in the opposite sex. All the girls spoke about was the boys, and the boys were starting to peacock for the girls. A whole kissing myth was started by the older children, where if you wanted to kiss someone you had to do it behind this stupid shed somewhere. All the Fire Nation teens did it. Kori thought it was a fad, and did not buy into the idea. There were, however, boys she wanted to kiss.

Kori got moved up to another school because of how well she firebended. Some labeled her a prodigy or a genius, but Kori disagreed with such hasty labels. She only got to where she was because of the hard work she put into her fire bending, her form, and her training every single day, day after day. Kori was self-made. She watched the people who understood things easily with envy. Kori was logical, if she learned something she could apply it to anything, and in firebending she had excellent instincts, but she still had to work at it. While the ferocity, determination and drive was natural to her, she had always had no trouble with channeling her ambition and drive into her fire bending, but it was the constant repetition, drilling, and precision needed to master firebending that she had needed to practice on everyday. High ranking officials that firebended did not have the restraint that was needed with firebending, and got away with it, which irritated the young girl. Kori had incredible focus and staying power, which brought her fire bending to a degree above everyone else's, and the last thing she would allow herself to do was go over-board and have her bending backfire in her face because she couldn't control herself.

She had to work for everything herself. Her grades, her bending, her form, her posture, her vocabulary, her knowledge – everything. She wasn't given everything. Her parents' weren't wealthy, and their marriage had been torn apart, then they married again, and it got torn apart again. In the middle ring of the Fire Nation, it was starting to become more common, although still frowned upon. Kori was solitary anyway, but her desire for friends was aided to stay unsatisfied with this hanging over her head. She also hated her parents' hypocrisy and inconsistency – the turmoil in the house translated to turmoil in herself and many unpredictable, traumatic nights and emotions.

The school she went to was a prestigious fire bending academy. Only the talented and the gifted attended. The academic material was more challenging, and they were taught more advanced forms of firebending than any other teenager's their age. Kori took up the challenge immediately – Kori thrived on challenges. But the changes took a large toll on her. She slept longer and ate more to get her physical energy. But soon, she acclimatized to the work load. But they were even more narrow-minded here, and Kori took to never saying anything at all. The slightest comment against their Fire Lord was greatly frowned upon – and punished. Kori found it better to not say anything at all.

Without her energy being spent on social interaction – they had a higher standard there about interaction and only conversed in direct ways – she flourished in her bending and her academic classes. She was the top of her class in firebending. In the academy she was known to be cold, emotionless, brutally honest, and service/rule oriented. In her understated and quiet way, she caught the eye of a few officials looking for recruits – and in particular, an admiral looking to train a new deputee for the Fire Nation regiments. She wrote home about it, one of the few specific things she outlined in her letter to her parents and her younger brother. They would wait until she finished her education at the academy before taking her in their ranks under the admiral as his personal bodyguard. Her parents were overjoyed.

But soon after Kori graduated the elite boarding academy at sixteen, she defected from the Fire Nation. Her teachers and the admiral that had looked to hire her went over her records. The signs had been there all along – she had been taking extra classes, in embroidery, art, and many other eclectic subjects, some traditional, some unusual. She had been putting so much work into the academy and learning, and was notoriously stressed – her parents claimed they didn't know of the extra classes, but if they did, they would have urged her to spread them out and take it slow. She graduated two years early of the usual graduation age. The admiral noted that she must have a high stress tolerance and good organizational skills to be able to carry out the extra classes with such short time for relaxation or play and still undertake her military training to a degree of excellence – as what was noted on her certificate. He saw himself, a war-decorated hero, in her. She had the makings to be great.

Immediately a search party was dispatched to catch the teenage girl in case she hadn't left the Fire Nation completely. When she wasn't found, wanted posters were put up for the girl all over the world in every nation.


	2. Chapter 2

The bridge lowered onto their ship. Across the bridge walked a girl with her hair up, dressed in armor with two soldiers flanking her. Zuko and Iroh met her when she took a step into their ship.

"Hello," She said pleasantly, hands behind her back in the standard position. Both Iroh and Zuko were not quite expecting a friendly greeting. Not friendly as in too personal, but any ships that passed the banished prince's, and wished to come aboard, were usually to coldly and impersonally check the ship and sometimes even confer with their coordinates. When this ship passed Zuko's with a fire emblem on the side, both the Prince and the Fire Lord's brother braced for a potential meeting with a stuffy higher up. However, it appeared that the girl was perhaps around Zuko's age, around fifteen, and had the impeccable posture of a fighter.

They returned the greeting in kind, although more cautiously.

The girl's eyes were lively.

"I am Kori Ikuma, of the Fire Nation Academy,"

Iroh raised his grey eyebrows, now recognizing her uniform.

"Ahh!" He said, relaxed. Zuko darted his eyes to his Uncle. "I was wondering where I recognized that uniform, although, why you are at sea and so far from home is the question," Iroh had a way of making it sound curious and playful instead of scolding or suspicious. The girl chuckled good-naturedly, and both men found it pleasurable to the ear.

"Yes, it is part of my two year internship before I graduate the academy. I must know how to navigate myself at sea with military level expertise," Despite her words, Zuko had a hard time believing this petite woman was a warrior, even though she was dressed in armor. It looked like someone had picked her up from somewhere and put her in some armor and had her hair done nicely, coached her on how to stand and walk, but it was only a rouse.

"Ah, I see," conceded Iroh with a bowed head.

She looked between them.

"Have you found the Avatar?"

Zuko's face immediately hardened and his personality burst through.

"No, we haven't, _yet, _and you're not going to catch him first!" Zuko had taken a step forward, but his shorter, stauncher uncle held out a sleeved arm to hold him back.

"Prince Zuko," He scolded.

The girl smiled diplomatically.

"Of course, I have every confidence you will find him."

That made Zuko heel a bit.

Both men were looking at her oddly.

"I know the Avatar has disappeared for a hundred years, but I think he is still alive."

Both men were too stunned to reply at her bold statement.

"You see, if he had died, at any point from the point he disappeared until now, as humans on average live about 60-80 years, then he would have reincarnated into the next element – which, of course, would have been water. But they have a small population, and there continues to be no powerful bender around them. In fact, there _are _no benders around them, it's reported!" She laughed her delightful laughter. "Which, leads me to believe, that the Avatar found a way to disappear, and perhaps, freeze himself in time. If that is the case, then he will have to come out eventually. I have every confidence you're not on a wild goose chase, Prince Zuko. I simply wanted to stop by and restore your faith. I know it is easy to believe you'll never find what you're looking for."

After getting over rationalizing her words, Zuko looked at her up and down, suspiciously. Even for her kind words, there must have been a motive.

"Well," She wrapped up in a light tone, looking between the stunned men, not expecting a reply. "I wish you good sailing." With that she turned and marched with grace and dignity up the wooden bridge to her larger ship with the men behind her. The bridge was pulled up, and the ship passed them.

(Ha, even interns get bigger ships than a banished Prince Zuko…. Aww… Just so you know, Kori had been on her ship for a year by now. And 60-80 years in this era of Avatar seems about right with how many of the population live in war time and not a lot of people having a lot of money.)

"Do you think she's right, Uncle?" Zuko asked in a rare soft voice. Iroh was inwardly surprised. His nephew had been so adamant, relentless, and determined for the last two years to find the Avatar that he hadn't doubted himself once. Perhaps he had been lately, inwardly.

With his back to his nephew, Iroh spread his lips in a grin.

"Oh yes!" He replied in immediate confidence. "You will always find what you are looking for, Prince Zuko." He peeked over his shoulder and his nephew was looking out into the water. "And she is pretty, no? She would make a pretty wife when you get back to the Fire Nation. Maybe we'll see her again sometime soon!" He teased.

Zuko snapped up out of his thoughtful stance and glared, clenching his fists. Immediately he was back to his usual raging personality.

"No! I hope we never see her again! I hope her ship just keeps on sailing!" He whirled around with his back to his uncle, folding his arms. But it was clear to Iroh that he didn't believe what he said. Iroh snickered to himself and turned back to the door, going to make some of his delicious tea.

"I think you protest too much, my nephew..." He chuckled.

A year later

The men were starting to doubt him, that they would find the Avatar. They weren't even putting their backs into it anymore. They just thought they were babysitting a spoilt banished Prince. But Zuko kept going. He had to. For his honor.

And finally, the wait paid off.


	3. Chapter 3

She waited in the shadows of the forest. Some commotion stirred her. She watched as a kid with blue arrow markings and a watertribe girl and boy panic at the side of the river. The Avatar, she realized, was the one standing in a canoe with a long staff, the water tribe boy was furthest from the water and the girl with a long braid was in between them both pleading with the Avatar.

She couldn't hear what it was about, but they were all arguing and in a panic. Eventually, they decided on something and the watertribe members left the airbender alone in the canoe, one foot in the boat and one on land, unsurely holding his staff with both hands near his chest.

She licked her dry lips to wet them.

_Now._

Aang felt bad leaving Appa and Momo at camp, but they had to. They planned on going to the North Pole, but they also needed to lay low from Zuko. So, they set up camp in a forest on an island and let Appa rest for a while from flying, hoping to lose Zuko if he didn't get any sightings of the rare creature in the air. But, if they got any further from camp, they risked losing their way back. Sokka had a map, but it was a poorly drawn one and no one could decipher the illustrations he put on there. They were supposed to get food and also find if there were maybe some people around where they could get supplies for when they would fly. Sokka liked the camp they made because of the traps he had set up around the perimeter, he felt very safe in the circle of those traps, and didn't want to venture away from them. Katara was concerned about leaving Appa unattended. Aang was definitely concerned about all those things, but they needed to either find people or make sure they were alone, and find food! There would be no flying if they didn't get any food! Katara and Sokka hadn't brought any with them from the North Pole, and Aang technically hadn't eaten in a hundred years…

He could go on ahead, but then he had the only boat that they found. Katara and Sokka wouldn't be able to follow with how deep and wide the river was. They'd be stuck to one side. And Appa definitely needed to rest, which is why he was okay with leaving him.

How convenient, the boat was that they found. It was just lying there like it was waiting for someone! Aang had got in it right away, marveling at the craftsmanship, but Katara was weary. When Sokka kept protesting, the two watertribe members slid back to camp as they could find their way back this far. Aang's stomach was rumbling, and the marveling of the wooden boat over, he longingly looked out to the river where berries were calling his name. He was a vegetarian, so he didn't eat the meat Katara could catch. Looking back to where Katara and Sokka had gone, the boy monk dressed in yellow and orange then let out air and sank down into the seat of the boat immaturely.

And that's when it happened.

It jumped from the nearby bushes like a monkey blur and Aang yelled on the top of his twelve year old voice, but as he lifted his arms to airbend the limbs were caught, a rope looped around his wrists and ankles tight and then he saw black…

She straightens up from the boy lying in her canoe, looking down at him.

A notion passes in her mind at how easy that was. Her face is blank. She's weary.

She uses her small wooden paddle to paddle the canoe downstream, the practiced, lean muscles in her arms used to the work. She puts one dark eye over her shoulder to glance at the Avatar tied up in the seat behind her. Why, he's a boy. How on Earth did he stay so young for a hundred years? Maybe she'd been right about being frozen in time. Ah, once upon a time when she had spoken to the banished Prince and his uncle. Things were so easy back then. So simple. She looks forward as she shifted the paddle over her lap to the other side of her small boat and it smoothly cuts through the water.

She debated whether or not to take the Avatar to her more sophisticated camp, or if she should make a temporary one to mislead him if he brings his friends, or if they find them first.

When he wakes up, she says,

"You are remarkably easy to spot."

He quickly shuts his eyes again to pretend he's asleep, but he lacks guile, and she's seen him anyway, so his grey eyes frightfully open. The ropes are tighter than the last time he was tied up – and with a gasp he saw the canoe bobbing at the river bank. He felt silly as he realized it was hers.

"Aaah, I'm sorry. I didn't know the boat was yours," He said quickly, trying to make amends.

She's silent. She was sitting before him in front of a camp fire, but it was still afternoon and it wasn't lit. She was sitting with her arms encircled at her knees lightly, where there is a lot of space between her knees and her torso.

She's looking ahead like he won't try to get out of his restraints and pose a threat to her or escape. He notices she has long dark hair and black eyes. She's wearing clothes the color of the forest, and boots. She's very pretty, and he finds his heart beating faster and a small blush come to his face. She looked to be maybe Zuko's age, although he hadn't paid much attention to his fire bending pursuer. As if sensing his staring, she darts her eye to him. He's trapped in their bottomlessness, and he doesn't notice his breathing rate is noticeably getting faster.

The girl notices him staring at her strangely, and she narrows her eyes. He realizes and stops himself by dragging his eyes away to the forest floor. He busies himself then by trying against his restraints again. He tries to lighten the situation.

"So… the boat _is _yours, right?"

His chuckles die when it is met with a solid stare, then she looks ahead again.

"Yes, it is." Her voice is smooth and low.

The silence is terribly awkward for Aang. He pulls himself upright from his position lying on the floor and presses his back to a tree conveniently in place. The bark bites his skin through his shirt. He looks at the ropes and is surprised by how tight they are. She must be someone really good at this kind of stuff, and if the canoe was hers… He puts two and two together that she must have been out here in a while, and she must be very good with her hands and with tools. She stands for something, standing tall and powerful, wiping her trousers. Seeing she wasn't looking, he bites the ropes to test how far they'll give.

"Don't try. You won't get out of those." She is looking at him now, and he averts his eyes.

He sees a fire emblem on the sword near her feet on the ground, and he narrows his eyes distrustfully back at the girl who is still looking at him.

"Are you going to take me to the Fire Nation? Are you working with Zuko?"

She bends down near a satchel bag, her back to him. Aang couldn't help but itch and his eyes dart to the water where the canoe is.

"Do you not want food?" She asks, her back still turned. Aang's stomach grumbled on cue when she turned around and puts a pot over the firestones.

She sits down casually in her spot, munching on something crunchy in her mouth.

"Here." She puts something small and green in his mouth before he could protest, and he tastes something savory and minty. He crunches it and it releases a bittersweet taste. His saliva starts secreting in his mouth, and he swallows the flavor. It then eases his stomach's hunger a little.

Aang is so preoccupied with the crunchy vegetable thing in his mouth that the girl in front of him goes about lighting the fire unnoticed. She chops vegetables quickly with a hand knife and deftly cooks them in a pot over a roaring fire. She's got more skill at it that he had seen in his GAang in the last few weeks. His stomach growls as the scent of the food when it wafts over to him through the air. She looks over at him when she hears it and chuckles.

When Aang finishes his little hunger-quenching snack, he suddenly notices the glint of her silver knife in the sun. The girl looks focused on her task as she cuts and strips vegetables, collecting them in the pot. Aang wonders if he can make a run for it, but first he has to ask.

"Why did you take me?"

She's unashamed at her next words. "You got in my canoe, Avatar." Her eyes slide over to him and then back to what she was doing. "I saw an opportunity and I took it." She said tonelessly and spat out her crunchy vegetable snack. Aang's stomach squirms as he watched this and he realized he wasn't meant to swallow the thing.

"You…" He pulls his knees to his chest. She looks over at his movement. "You're not going to take me to the Fire Nation are you?"

She turned back to what she was doing, pulling the skin off a vegetable and stripping it into the neat pile next to her saved for composting that she would then give back to the forest.

"The whole Fire Nation is after you." She says, and for all he could tell she was uncaring in the statement. Her eyes are only on her working hands as the fire reflects in them and makes him realize that they are deeper pools than he could originally see. "You're bound to be worth something."

Aang gulps.

She tastes the cooking, taking a bite with her teeth only because of the heat, scrunching her face as she chewed and putting the vegetable back in the pot to keep cooking.

"…Is there any chance you'll let me go?"

"You got in my boat, Avatar." She says lowly. She turns her face so he can only see only eye, and she's smiling. When she smiles, he notices the color and shape of her eyes, the way her cheeks arch into her jaw, the way her jaw tapers into her chin. "You wanted to go with me. You are now mine for a while." Her cheekiness, lively eyes, and Cheshire grin made her look like a jester or a clown to him. A pretty one.

"But… You'll let me go, right?"

She looked at the wildlife about them as she mock contemplated what he said. She brought a finger to her chin, thinking, and took it away, smirking.

"Perhaps… if your friends can trade me something of equal value." She said slyly, laughing again, this time a mix of her voice and of her breath, her head tilted back a little. Her words don't seem to scare him, and she notices that perhaps it's because he doesn't realize that no one is of equal value to the Avatar. And that fact is why she chuckled. She looks at the fire pit, the curve of her smirk making the boy look at it on her features.

The sentence doesn't make sense to him, but he rattles his brain for something they might have that might be of equal value to him.

He's happy to have learned that she knows of his friends, who would rescue him.

"But there is nothing of equal value to the Avatar," Aang says in confusion. It wasn't said out of arrogance or ego, it was a fact.

Her grin is gone already, and she answers shortly.

"Exactly. That was the joke."

She hands him food. He doesn't want to eat it, but his hunger has come back with the tantalizing smell, and he scarfs it down when he thinks she isn't looking.

Now with his stomach fed, he licks his lips to get as much of the juice and flavor as he could in his stomach, he feels more endeared towards her.

"Uh, I never introduced myself. My name's Aang." He pushed his pointed fingers together. "What's yours?"

She's sitting with an almost lazy smile on her mouth, with her cheek in her hand and her elbow on her knee. She turns to him.

"It amazes me, how you sit there and introduce yourself to someone who's captured you."

He's shocked a little at the rebuke. He was too stunned to form a coherent thought.

Her eyes lazily stay on him with a lazy smile on her face. She's so pretty.

"And you behave like I want to know your name."

What a jerk!

Aang, flustered, tries to turn his body away from her, the pressure of the bark easing slowly on his back. He hears her chuckle from where she sits, and she snaps a twig in her hands.

"I was just tryna be nice…" He says quietly, poutingly.

"I'm just saying, assuming someone's emotions is very insulting and inaccurate."

He's starting to feel a little sleepy. He's surprised when she talks to him.

"You can't afford my name right now."

"…Huh?"

She didn't repeat herself, staring ahead, thinking quietly and going back to her thought system that dealt with people and conversation. Then, she said, her eyes on him,

"You're better off not knowing my name. It won't serve you in any way, anyway, but if you get captured in the future it's best that you don't know me."

"Oh." Aang said in understanding.

But then a terrifying thought entered Aang's mind. What if she was really going to take him away? What if she did work with Zuko? What if she was going to bring him to the Firelord?

"Don't you worry little Avatar, you won't find your way out of here. We are too deep in the forest." He's so charmed by her that the words don't sound creepy until later when he reviews them in his confused stupor. How did she read him with his back to her?

She then straightened her back like she was curious at something she heard. She looked to his right, although he didn't hear anything. She turns to look back at him, and he can't conceive an idea or fathom what her eyes were saying.

She cuts loose his wrist ropes, claiming that he wouldn't get away from her, and he finds himself not contradicting her iron, quiet confidence. He notices as she moves about camp that she stands tall and powerful in her hips and stance, her shoulders back, back strong. Even though she's petite, he thinks that he wouldn't be able to knock her down or move her.

His eyes start to feel heavy. The last thing he sees is her tall back.

"My name is En."

She blinks. She doesn't care. She almost tells him so, but it's rude.

"What's your name?"

She sighs, her side to the other Fire Nation boy.

"Kori."

He smiles, like he's triumphant in something. If Kori wasn't pretending she didn't see it, she would have rolled her eyes.

Her disinterested brown eyes look over the balcony she's standing at with her hands behind her back. It's the evening, at a party that she had to attend with her parents. She hates parties. She hates conversation. She hates interaction. Maybe if she gave this boy a hint he'd go away.

En looks at the girl up and down. She was in his school, both the twelve year olds in the same year. She's so strong, and silent, he thinks. She's admirable, and different to every other girl he knew. She stands always as if she is authoritarian, her hands behind her back. Some people, mostly girls, made fun of her for this, but to him, it made him respect her. She was strong, and a mystery.

"Don't you like the party?" He asks hopefully. She hears it in his voice, and glances over to him. The last thing she wants to do is offend the son of the family who was hosting the party. She doesn't know whether to be honest or to make something polite up.

"I just wanted some air. There are a lot of people in there."

He grins, relieved.

"Yes, it can be stifling at times."

Kori relaxes, and gazes peacefully out into the night sky. En moves closer.

Once Aang had fallen asleep from the special leaf she gave him in his food, she looks at him. He looks different than to how the paintings and books described an air nomad. He's smaller and his skin is smoother. His arrows aren't funky or obscene. He didn't have monstrous, beady eyes. He's serene to be around. She reaches over to where he's slumped against the tree and boldly puts her hand down the collar of his shirt, pulling out light orange, wooden prayer beads with the air bending symbol on them and a pendant of the airbender's symbol hanging at the bottom. She looks at the carved prayer beads for a while, then pulls them over his head and pockets them.

She traveled back to her previous camp and packed everything up in minutes, putting a small bag of her few personal belongings on her shoulder, the clearing now looking like no one had inhabited there. She looked around and left the clearing.

Zuko was taking a detour through an island that his map showed to have a wide river through the center. His boat was probably the only commercial fire nation boat that was small enough to get through it. The banished Fire Nation prince had last seen the flying... thing, his uncle called it a Sky Bison, with the Avatar a few days ago. However, he lost him. He was thinking maybe they were around the island, and instead of wasting time going around it, he could just cut through it.

There had been some white fur in the water near the island, which suggested that they were low enough to land here. It was a good idea on their part, on island there were more people and less places to hide.

Zuko closed his portable scope and handed it to his baffled soldier who seemed confused but took it. He stalked into the ship through a squeaking door and then went to the captain's helm where a soldier steered the boat.

"Keep moving through. I want the Avatar,"

"Prince Zuko, would you like to play a game of Pai Sho?" came his cheeky Uncle's voice.

"No thanks." He said slowly, making it clear he wouldn't be anytime.

Katara and Sokka were at camp, packing everything up because they just decided to move camp, when Katara was facing the sea and she gasped. Zuko's ship was nearing the land.

"Sokka!" She pointed. Appa moaned. The watertribe warrior stood up and walked around their furry friend, and his eyes bugged at the sight of the ship.

Ignoring Sokka's 'witty' comment, Katara set quickly to pack everything on Appa's back saddle, Sokka hopping up in front of it and taking Appa's reins.

"No, Sokka! If we fly, he'll see us!" Katara stopped him before he could lap the reins.

"So what are we supposed to do? Sit here like turtle ducks?!" Sokka squawked.

"I don't know!" Katara said sternly, hands on her hips. "But we can't fly!"

"Appa's too big to get through these trees! We can't just _leave _him!"

"But what about Aang? We have to warn him!"

"Aang's fine," Sokka waved a hand, not raising his voice anymore. "He put himself in an iceberg when he was in danger last time, he can take care of himself!" Momo brought a stone over to Sokka, landing on his shoulder. Sokka 'ooh!'ed and got preoccupied with the stone.

Katara raised a doubtful eyebrow at her brother. She didn't like his lack of concern over Aang. Aang, after all, was twelve, and a naïve boy that was the last of a whole race of people. Plus, he was the Avatar. If Zuko found him…

Katara set her eyebrows.

"I'm going to find him –"

"Okay, good luck with that," said Sokka, tinkering with the stone with his boomerang, chipping at it like an expert diamond collector to appraise its value.

Katara made a 'humph' noise, turned on her heel, and made a run through the brush to get back to Aang.

Katara's face showed her disappointment and irritation when she came upon an empty river bank.

"Well, looks like he went to go find food by himself…" She muttered to herself. She heard the engine of the Fire Nation ship behind her, although she couldn't see it yet.

_He has to be able to hear that when it comes closer to him. He'll be okay… _She thought to herself, her hands holding each other at her chest insecurely.

She was about to turn back to go back to camp, but then she had a weird feeling to follow Zuko's ship. Yes! If they could follow Zuko's ship, they could find out whether or not he found Aang!

Zuko stood on deck, spying through his spyglass again, glancing around at the forest on both sides. They were now thick in the island, unable to see the sea on either side past the trees.

"Found anything yet, nephew?" called his Uncle.

"No, Uncle, no sign of him." He said, still looking through is scope.

"Keep looking!" encouraged his Uncle. Iroh then turned around with a cheeky grin and placed his White Lotus tile into position.

Minutes passed, and Zuko had not tired from looking through his spyglass.

"Well, Prince Zuko," Iroh ambled from his seat when he noticed this of his nephew. "Maybe you should take a break? The forest air is fresh and clean, the perfect environment to have some good tea…"

"I don't need TEA, Uncle. I need the Avatar," He closed his scope and turned away, only to see something immediately.

A small canoe.

"That! What's that! Make a course for that boat!" He shouted to his operator soldier, who alerted the Captain immediately for the altered course towards the innocent canoe.

She made her way back to her temporary camp and packed everything up there as well. She checked the ropes Aang had to make sure they were tight. When the boy woke up it was good timing because Zuko's boat was coming, as she anticipated. Zuko was never far behind Aang.

Aang had fallen asleep. But he only knew that when he woke up with a start. He looked around the camp and his captor was gone. Before him was a deserted camp. Or more like a deserted clearing. There was nothing that suggested human settlement there. He thought he had imagined the whole thing. But before he could jump up and run for it, (he's still tied up), a clothed arm shot out in front of his vision and pulled Aang to his feet, then dragged him out into the middle of the clearing by his wrist ropes. Aang didn't have to ask why, a few seconds later a metal ship pulled up to the river bank. Aang gasped at the sight of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation at the ship's edge. The girl who had a strong grip on him, however, seemed to merely glare up at them, her face closed, a fist on her hip.

"You are in possession of the Avatar," Zuko's eyes narrowed. It was more of a statement than anything else.

"That I am." Came the smooth voice of his captor, her glare still in place. "I am willing to trade him for safe passage on your ship until the next port."

Zuko's one black eyebrow narrowed, as the other had been burnt off.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

She shrugged apathetically. "Well then, fine. I'll just pass him onto Zhao when I next see him," She turned Aang around and was walking away when the Prince called out.

"Wait! - Deal. Crew, bring her and the Avatar aboard."

As a bridge lowered to land and two fire nation soldiers with white masks came down to seize the Avatar, Aang felt his captor lean her body close to him.

"I release you from me. You may leave, if you wish, to find your friends, once we are on the ship. Or you can stay. It's just an idea, but it doesn't mean anything to me."

The Avatar was taken and Kori followed with dignity as she crossed the bridge. The sixteen year old's hips and arms swayed naturally as she climbed wooden ridges on the plank, head lifting in a habit of dignity as she leveled out onto the deck. Aang was led away. He looked back at her.

She turned to Zuko, who was looking at her already.

He recognized her instantly now that she was closer, a few meters away. He knew that pretty face and that hair anywhere. She was different. Her hair was longer now, to her mid-back, where when he had seen her last it had been at her shoulders. She possessed a hardening, a strength that she didn't have before. But all he knew was when he had met her that one time face to face and passed her a few times after that and during those times there had been a focused look in her eyes like she was thinking about something.

She used to have such a high position in the Fire Nation, in the elite academy that's head was his father, and was even becoming well known in the Nation, apparently, from what he had heard from Zhao. Admiral Zhao had once come upon their ship to see if they were stowing away the traitor to the Fire Nation. That was the only way that Zuko knew she had left the Fire Nation. When they stopped next at a port, they found her wanted poster on a billboard. Because he was banished, he otherwise didn't know much about the going-on's of his nation.

Either way now, Zuko was noticing how different and the same she was than when he met her a year ago. As different as he could tell, because he had only met her that one time. And she had been right about the Avatar. He was alive, and he was young.

Iroh surveyed the ex-Fire Nation warrior. She stood older and wiser, immovable. She still possessed her delicate features, and petite body, but she was every bit a Fire Nation warrior that the elite academy spat out. They trained her well, he thought. She used to project the impression she was easy to topple over when they met her, however now she seemed as immovable as a cliff. He decided not to mention her defecting from the Fire Nation to keep things smooth sailing.

"Ah, Kori," He said with ease. "Just how did you come across the Avatar?"

Kori smiled just a little, beautiful but not warm. Her arms were in the standard position behind her back.

"He just fell into my lap." She then flipped her head so some hair in her eye would move out of her vision. "I knew wherever he was, you wouldn't be far behind. So I left my canoe out so you would find us."

Iroh nodded with a 'hmm', noting that that was clever to himself. It was difficult to tell if that was a product of intellectual talent, or if that was her training.

Zuko narrowed his gaze, becoming suspicious. He stalked over until he was in front of her.

"And why did you not keep him for yourself? And use him to trade your way back in to my father's good graces?"

"Zuko," Iroh scolded sternly.

Kori wanted to glare at him.

She wanted to keep her answers to herself, why was he making her answer him?

"Just be glad I gave him to you. Now you can go home." She said stonily.

Zuko's back straightened, his chin leaning back a little. She's got stones, he'll give her that. No one talked to him in that way except his Uncle.

"I only ask that you treat him humanely."

Zuko glared harshly at her. She appeared unaffected.

"Kori, how would you like some tea?" interjected Iroh with a kind tone to diffuse the situation.

"I do not drink tea, thank you for the offer, though." She answered calmly. It was a twisted truth; she didn't drink anything that she didn't know what went in it. If she could not identify everything that went into something, she didn't eat or drink it.

Iroh bowed accommodatingly.

"Very well, Prince Zuko," He turned to his nephew. "How about you show our new guest to her room?"

Kori didn't want to, but she smiled and let the grumbling Prince lead the way.

When Zuko saw a soldier leer at Kori, he jumped to escort her to her new room before he realized he did it. It was awkward on the way down there. Frustrated, awkward, and confused, he didn't know what to say to her when they got there. She was about to go in, but glanced at him when she saw he wanted to say something. When he felt so many emotions at once and he couldn't make sense of them, it came off like he was angry. Seeing that she was staring at him, it made him more embarrassed than he already was, and then he exploded with the first thing he could think of.

"Have a good night!" He shouted, walking away down the corridor with fire coming from his hands. It came out more like an order than an expression of goodwill. She watched him leave with a puzzled look on her face.

Zuko stalked back to the helm with angry steps. God, he was so stupid! Have a good night? It wasn't even evening yet! And why did he have to shout in her face? Zuko sighed and entered the room where his Uncle was sitting playing Pai Sho with a crew member and a soldier was steering the ship. Zuko pushed his lady troubles out of his mind and stalked over the man steering the ship.

A soldier entered the room and bowed before Zuko.

"The Avatar is in the room you requested, sir."

"Good." The soldier bowed and left.

"Set a course to my father. I'm going home." Zuko said to the soldier steering. He turned to the window with his hands behind his back.

"Ah ah ah, Prince Zuko," Zuko's shoulders hitched at the sound of his Uncle's voice. "What about getting some supplies first, hm? We're practically running out of rice, and tea! Good tea!"

"Fine! Make a course to the next port, and _then _set a course for my father!"

Just to clear things up, Iroh and Zuko attribute Kori's 'change in character' to her academy training, but you'll see and find out (I hope, as you read) that she can just control how she comes off to people in the way that she acts and behaves. This is why they think she has 'changed'.


	4. Chapter 4

_Aang reminded her of boy she knew in the Fire Nation. His name was Yun, and he was weak looking and shy. She had been very attracted to him. He was understated and had always admired her. He had good shoulders and nice hair. She liked how weak he was, although she didn't care about how he sometimes blushed when she was around, or how sweet he was, although she liked that. When they were alone, she planted her mouth to his. It happened twice. She went to him both times – she didn't play the games that most women and men played with each other. Because she wanted him, she went after him. He had a shy smile she liked to see. And she liked his eyes very much. Aang reminded her of the quality Yun had, although Yun had been older and slightly stronger looking than Aang did right now._

_She swept the Avatar boy onto his feet and they were taken aboard the ship…_

* * *

Back in the present, Kori was eagerly anticipating the future. She was now seated on her bed in her new room, thinking excitedly about what she was going to do next. She checked her shoulder bag to make sure she had everything. She did.

She had just arrived in her room, but she got up and left through the door, closing it behind her, and walked back the way she came.

After Kori came back from her round on the ship to make herself familiar with things, she went back to her room. Sitting on the bed, she checked if all her things were still in her shoulder bag. They were. She heard a knock on the door and turned towards it.

* * *

Zuko sighed as he walked. In his hand was a steaming bowl of rice and vegetables for his guest. He walked down the red tinted, metal hallway and stopped by her door, knocking twice with his knuckles.

"Come in." He heard.

He opened her door and stepped into her room. She seemed surprised that he brought dinner for her.

She stood up from her bed, still made, leaving a slight crinkle in the cover. She wrung her hands, then put them down by her side, stepping towards him in one large step.

"You didn't have to bring me anything. I would have come out on deck sooner or later, for dinner," She accepted the bowl from him, which he handed her surprisingly gently. She took the warm wooden bowl, not very hungry, and put it on the desk next to her. "Thank you, though."

Next she looked up at him, standing facing him.

"Um," He began. "I'm sorry for shouting… in your face, earlier…"

He was apologizing to her?

Kori shook her head. "It's fine."

Zuko was intrigued by the girl, she stood a few inches shorter than him. She was so different to any of the other girls he'd known in the fire nation, in every way. She was a mystery to him.

"The Avatar has his own room," He said, to keep the conversation going. She looked at him. "Heavily guarded, all the time."

She blinked, then nodded. She smiled. "Alright, thank you for not putting him in a cell."

He nodded, feeling uncomfortable. He palmed the back of his neck.

"Well, I'll get going then."

She nodded, turning back to her bed as he shut the door behind him with a sigh of relief.

* * *

Aang sat miserably on his bed on the Fire Nation ship. He worried about Sokka, Katara and Appa. He hoped to get to them soon, or that they find him.

He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't notice the door open behind him. But when he noticed the light on the wall and a silhouette, he whirled around on the bed to see his previous captor leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, looking more amiable than before with a slight smirk on her lips.

Aang got off the bed, stumbling back. He looked around for Fire Nation soldiers.

"The soldiers are changing shifts," She said, as if reading his mind. "My name is Kori Ikuma."

Not knowing what to do, Aang nodded. His eyes widened as the name reached home. The guards had been talking about her, so the twelve year old boy heard her story of betraying the Fire Nation, although now it looked like she was working with Zuko. But then, when they got on Zuko's ship, she'd spoken to him like she was on his side, and that led Aang to be hopeful that maybe she would accept an invitation to escape with him. That night. She deserved more than to be a slave to the Fire Nation, or anyone.

She entered the room with wide strides, looking around it.

"Are you gonna help me escape?" He asked. She had walked over to his small backpack and staff leaning against the wall. "Will my friends find me?" She looked up from where she was looking through his belongings, expression and eyes mysterious and unfathomable.

"There is no telling, Avatar, at this point." She said tonelessly. She fisted a hand in his discarded shirt that he had taken off, gripping it tight. He stood shirtless on the other side of the room. After she had touched all of his things, she left that side of the room and walked into the center, her hands in dutiful fists.

His grey eyes narrowed and she stared back with little emotion into them. She didn't seem so concerned with his escape plans.

"You ARE working with Zuko. I was wrong to think that you would help me. You're a traitor to the Avatar."

"Think what you want, Avatar." She tilted her head. "All things come right in the end." For all his implied anger and emotion in his voice, she answered with hardly any.

She flashed him a cunning grin, creating a stunning image that would imprint on the back of his eyelids that night and the rest of the nights to come. She had cunning promise in her eyes, and it was burningly deep, and aimed at him. The room felt like it drew all its warmth and light from where she stood. This all happened in a stunning split moment before she turned and left. She looked over her shoulder before she got to the doorway, and the way her sleek hair fell down her back and her deep eyes were shaped and her sharp grin etched on her pale face, he would never forget that moment in his life.

"Turn left, two doors down." She said, and he was confused. But she vanished, and two soldiers appeared by his door and looked in to make sure the Avatar was still there, then they closed the door and left him alone. Aang stood in the same spot, stunned.

When Aang escaped that night, the monk angrier than he'd been in a long time, and met up with his friends and Appa and Momo, Katara worried over him and he pushed her away, needing to think. The only reason he hadn't escaped sooner was because he was debating whether to save Kori or not and take her with him. But it looked like she was working with Zuko now and she would be staying with him. He now had two people to worry about chasing him. And yet, when he followed Kori's directions he found his staff in the room that it led him too. He was so confused. He felt guilty for calling her a traitor to him and thinking she was working with Zuko. He wanted to believe the good in her, though, and he didn't discuss it with the Gang.

Aang didn't like lying, it was against his upbringing as well, so when he avoided Katara's worried questions and Sokka's concerned gaze and he mumbled something about escaping from Prince Zuko who captured him, they weren't entirely convinced, but they dropped it.

The more Aang thought about it, the more his young mind couldn't come up with anything concrete to understand the girl who caught him. She was entirely magnetic, and yet extremely distant. He couldn't figure it out. He found himself drawn to Kori. There was no defining feature or attribute he could name, it was just… everything. And although she was pretty, in some odd angles she wasn't, but how drawn he was to her never wavered. But what was he thinking! She kidnapped him in the first place! How did this even make sense? Where was the seeing good in her? She abducted him and _drugged _him and then gave him to Zuko. But he couldn't ignore that she gave him the directions to his staff and hinted when she handed him over to the Fire Nation Prince that she didn't care if he escaped…

The more Aang thought of her, the less he noticed he was falling asleep. And the cunning image she made stayed with him in his dreams.

* * *

"The Avatar escaped!"

"Oh dear, did you see where he went?"

The Prince was frustrated, pacing about the deck, fire blowing out of his hands and his nose. She watched him move about unfeelingly.

"No! I was hoping you did!" He suddenly whirled on her. "Did you see or hear _anything _that could indicate where he went?"

The sixteen year old stood there silently, pondering over his question.

"Well, I heard some unusual wind last night heading west." At this Zuko already stormed to his captain and commanded him to direct his course that way, not hearing the rest of the sentence. "I thought it was strange because it was an unusual wind yet our ship didn't get any choppier indicating choppy waves… so I thought it must be a single occurrence and the only thing that can make that happen in nature is the Avatar. Since there's no airbenders anymore except him."

Iroh stroked his short, white beard contemplatively.

"Hmm… yes, I recall hearing it too."

"You did?" Zuko asked hopefully, stepping towards his Uncle.

"Yes, but, it might have just been my stomach, I don't know." He grinned, holding his rounded belly.

Kori swiveled in her spot a full 180 degrees.

"I'm going to bed." She announced lowly, walking towards the door. It was before dawn, she had another hour of sleep before she woke up with the sun. Zuko gripped his head and paced.

"Nephew…." Iroh said in a teasing voice, turning his eyes to Kori's back pointedly. Zuko glared at his uncle, then resigned himself. He straightened with a small blush on his cheeks, and then just as Kori disappeared out the door Zuko ran up to catch up with her and escort her to her room before dawn.


End file.
